


What the Actual Fuck? (Or, A Junnie/Hoonie Love Story Told in Six Parts)

by miraclebee



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Drinking, Fluff, Kwon Soonyoung is a Little Shit, M/M, Swearing, Wen Junhui is Cheesy, and supporting each other, but it all works out in the end, everyone is overdramatic, kinda crack-y at parts, loving boyfriends working through their feelings together, talking about sex, the whole thing is cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraclebee/pseuds/miraclebee
Summary: Wen Junhui and Lee Jihoon are in love and it's amazing. But when their friends get involved shit tends to hit the fan. They wouldn't want it any other way...would they?(Or, Junhui's favorite catchphrase is "What the actual fuck?" and gets used at various relationship milestones by various people for various reasons)
Relationships: Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Wen Jun Hui | Jun, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78





	What the Actual Fuck? (Or, A Junnie/Hoonie Love Story Told in Six Parts)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is, but writing it helped bring me out of my slump so enjoy!  
> (Also thanks to G for being the Hoonie to my Junnie and sometimes the other way around)

**Part 1: Getting the Boy (Which actually turns out to be the easiest part)**

Lee Jihoon, as a rule, does not go to clubs. They’re loud (yes he does listen to music so loudly on his headphones that other people can hear it but that’s different), filled with people, and entirely disorienting. So Jihoon sits stubbornly at the bar sipping at a cocktail he ordered at least an hour ago, taking turns between looking at cat videos on his phone and scanning the crowd to make sure that his friends are still alive somewhere in the mosh pit that is currently the dance floor.

A few people try to approach him, but one of Jihoon’s specialties happens to be a glare that tends to make most people’s spines tingle with fear. Jeonghan had even told Jihoon that he was kind of scared of him when they first met when they were kids. Jihoon wishes that that first impression had lasted longer than a month because Jeonghan is the reason he is here in the first place.

So Jihoon is surviving at the club, armed with a phone and when that doesn’t work, his signature glare. It’s working pretty well and he hasn’t had any human interaction in the last twenty minutes.

But.

There’s this guy on the dance floor and he keeps glancing over at Jihoon at the bar. The guy is attractive, probably around his age, with jet black hair hiding his forehead, piercing eyes, and an undeniably equal-parts adorable and devious smile. Jihoon can’t really see the rest of him because he’s surrounded by a pretty sizable crowd, but he’s probably just as unfairly fit as everyone in this dumb club. Jihoon accidentally makes eye contact after counting his friends’ heads and finding them all still intact. He shifts his body away, but he can see the guy making his way toward him out of the corner of his eye.

Fuck. Time to power up the glare.

When the guy is a little closer, emerging out of the ocean of bodies writhing to the music and a few steps away from the bar, Jihoon turns around and glares at the guy, full force.

The guy falls, flat on his face.

Jihoon is not expecting that response (as usually the people just turn away and they don’t usually fucking faceplant) and erupts into a cackling laughter that he can’t control because, damn, even he didn’t know that his stare was that powerful.

He keeps laughing while the guy picks himself up and dusts off his white button-up with one too many buttons undone at the top in Jihoon’s opinion.

“What the actual fuck?” the guy says over the music, looking at his arms and legs (Jihoon was right about him being fit, especially in the thigh area) like they betrayed him. Which, they kind of did.

The guy, who before had looked so confident when dancing and approaching Jihoon and now looks so pitiful, pulls at Jihoon’s cold black heartstrings. He can’t help it. A guy who faceplants while approaching Jihoon at a club deserves some sort of chance.

“That’s one hell of a pickup line,” Jihoon says with a wicked smile.

The guy looks up at Jihoon, probably surprised that he hasn’t left yet. He smiles and then his entire demeanor changes, cockily sidling up to the bar and propping himself up on the empty stool next to Jihoon.

“That wasn’t my pickup line,” the guy says.

“Well,” Jihoon starts, taking a tiny sip of his drink. “What was it supposed to be then?”

The guy was clearly not expecting that response out of Jihoon. He opens his mouth, then closes it, slowly losing confidence until he gives an embarrassed sort of smile.

“Your gaze floored me?”

Jihoon laughs and the guy laughs with him, a little unsure.

“Is that a question?” Jihoon is able to ask in between giggles. Though, he’s not entirely sure why he’s still giggling. Lee Jihoon is not someone who goes to clubs _or_ giggles.

“Yes?”

Jihoon shakes his head. This guy is unbelievable.

“Look,” the guys says, pout on his lips. “What else am I supposed to say to a cute guy after I’ve just fallen on my beautiful face in front of him?”

“Can’t say I have much experience in that department,” Jihoon smirks at the guy, who’s still visibly pouting.

Jihoon doesn’t know if it’s the alcohol (he’s not even a little tipsy with the one drink he’s had all night but he’ll never admit it otherwise) or the club or the fact that he hasn’t had sex since his breakup six months ago, but he finds this guy standing in front of him extremely attractive and weirdly endearing. He’s known the guy for all of five minutes and already finds him incredibly entertaining. So Jihoon isn’t really sure what makes him do it, but he does it anyway.

Instead of turning away and ignoring the guy or even bailing and going to find Jeonghan or Seungkwan on the dance floor, he extends a hand to the guy.

“I’m Lee Jihoon.”

The guy looks surprised, eyes shifting between Jihoon’s face and his extended hand. He slowly reaches forward and takes Jihoon’s hand. His hand is warm, but not sweaty. Grip firm, but not bone-crushing.

“Wen Junhui.”

The rest of the night is a wonderful blur.

Junhui takes up permanent residence in the barstool next to Jihoon’s and downs a bottle of water while basically telling Jihoon his entire life story. Wen Junhui, born in Shenzhen, China but moved to Korea for his parents’ jobs when he was in high school. Junhui hated it at first, but his little brother Fengjun, loved it. Junhui started to adjust better after starting college and getting a nice group of friends to support him. He now works at a bank, describes himself as bisexual, usually goes with the Korean surname ‘Moon’, and is scared of spiders.

Jihoon just listens, entranced by the human in front of him. Wen Junhui is, put very simply, beautiful. He’s tall, tan, and has the tiniest of accents. He has a bright smile that Jihoon can’t help but stare at, and even the way he wipes the sweat that’s gathered at his temples with the back of his hand is captivating. He’s beautiful and cute and funny and Jihoon is fucked.

Jihoon even opens up about himself, something he never does to complete strangers. Hell, it took Jeonghan at least a year of persistently trying to make conversation with him to get more than two sentences out of him. Wen Junhui must also be some sort of magician.

Jihoon just finishes his story from his childhood about when his cousins made him ride his scooter down a dirt hill that ended in a lot of crying and a nasty scar that he still has from a gash on his ankle, when Junhui tilts his head at Jihoon with a teasing smirk.

“Want to get out of here?” he asks so quietly that he would have missed it if he wasn’t sitting so closely to the other man.

Jihoon instinctively flinches. He likes Junhui, but he isn’t really looking for a hook-up right now. Not that he’s never been one to randomly hookup with a stranger, it’s just that Jihoon prefers to know the person he’s having sex with, be able to trust them enough to be himself with them. But he likes Junhui and he doesn’t want this to turn into something complicated or messy if Junhui isn’t on the same page or doesn’t feel the same. He’s about to voice his concerns when Junhui speaks up again.

“I’m super hungry and I know a good chicken place nearby.”

Oh.

“Chicken?” Jihoon asks stupidly.

Junhui nods enthusiastically, making his hair flop a little on his forehead.

Cute.

“Just—you’re not a murderer, right?” Jihoon asks.

Junhui shrugs. “Not unless succulents count.”

“You’ve killed succulents?” Jihoon can’t help but keep the judging tone from his statement. Jihoon is notorious for killing plants, but at least he’s been able to keep Pippin alive for the last eight months.

“Not intentionally!” Junhui pouts. Jihoon is starting to like that pout.

“That’s…that’s actually kind of impressive. But in a bad way.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Junhui says as he hops off of the bar stool, pout transforming into a small smirk that Jihoon is also starting to like. “So…chicken?”

“Chicken,” Jihoon nods. “I just have to tell my friends I’m leaving.”

"Same."

Jihoon takes out his phone to text Mingyu, their groups’ designated Sober Friend™ to make sure that everyone gets home safely, that he has a headache and is going home early. Thankfully, Mingyu doesn’t question him (it’s a move that he uses a lot to get out of annoying friend obligations) and just requests a selca when he gets home for proof that he’s safe.

“Let’s go.”

It turns out that Junhui isn’t lying about the chicken place. It’s just down the street and really good, too. Jihoon makes a mental note to bring his friends here sometime in the future.

They eat and talk even more, this time mostly about music. Junhui says music has always been one of his passions, especially when he was transitioning to Korean life. Jihoon makes the mistake of mentioning he’s dabbled in songwriting and Junhui insists that he has to hear one of his songs.

“Maybe later,” Jihoon shrugs it off. He doesn’t let anyone listen to his songs. He’s even made sure that none of his closest friends know that he can play pretty much every instrument known to man. And with Yoon Jeonghan as a friend, that’s a pretty amazing feat.

Junhui gives a small smile. “Does that mean that you want to see me again?”

Jihoon doesn’t answer, but he’s pretty sure his blush gives him away.

After they eat all the chicken they can, Junhui insists that they walk off the calories by strolling along the river. It’s a clear, unusally warm night for this time of year and there’s still a surprising amount of people out for nearing 3 in the morning.

Jihoon won’t let Junhui walk him home (stranger danger, he tells himself) but he does insist on walking with him until he gives up his phone number.

He finally goes to bed at 5am after sending Mingyu a sleepy selca and saving Junhui in his contacts as 'Jun' with a moon emoji next to it.

When he wakes up the next morning, well afternoon, it’s to a lot of angry messages from Mingyu yelling at him for getting home so late and a good morning message from Junhui. Naturally, Jihoon ignores Mingyu and texts Junhui back immediately instead. One text leads to another and by the end of the next day, Jihoon has a coffee date the following weekend.

Two weeks pass and Jihoon finds himself completely altering his schedule to spend as much time as he can with Junhui. They meet up almost every day, and when they can’t they fit in phone calls at weird times just to let the other know that they’re thinking of them.

Things with Junhui are easy. Junhui is ridiculously easy to talk to, even for someone who finds it hard to talk about things that aren’t one of his main passions. Junhui is funny, oftentimes unintentionally, but that’s what makes Jihoon fall for him in the first place. Junhui is understanding and a good listener, and sometimes is known to give Jihoon a piece of advice that is astoundingly profound for someone that also says that calls coffee ‘bean juice’. Junhui is also terrifyingly gorgeous when he wants to be and definitely a good kisser. Junhui is amazing and so so good and—

“Be my boyfriend?”

Jihoon can’t believe that those words just popped out of his own mouth.

This is crazily inappropriate and way too soon; he’s only known Junhui all of two weeks. Now he looks desperate and sad and Junhui is probably going to disappear out of his life forever because Jihoon is a creep and—

“Sure.”

Jihoon can’t believe his own ears.

He looks at Junhui then, finally, because when his brain misfired and spoke for itself, he didn’t have to courage to look at the other man sitting in front of him. Junhui has a small, pleased smile plastered to his face, cheeks rosy, and hands inching their way toward where Jihoon’s lay uselessly on the table.

Jihoon lets Junhui take his hands, hold them gently like they’re something precious, and Jihoon can’t help but grin back at his _boyfriend_ because this is so cheesy and awkward and probably horribly ill-timed, but Jihoon really really likes this. He really really likes Junhui.

**Part 2: Telling Your Friends You Have a Boyfriend (No, Soonyoung, Jihoon is not the name of my right hand)**

“What the actual fuck?”

Junhui doesn’t have an actual response to the scenario that his boyfriend just suggested.

It’s a normal Saturday afternoon for them, recovering from a night out with their respective friend groups by occupying opposite ends of Jihoon’s comfy couch and alternating between watching trashy TV and reading dumb news articles to each other, with appropriately timed breaks for sex and food and whatever else they might need. Jihoon huffs at him from behind his big bowl of popcorn. He has a piece poised in his hand like he’s thinking of throwing it at Junhui, so Junhui picks up the pillow that had been lying on top of his feet and holds it up in front of his head instead.

“Why are you overreacting like that?” he hears Jihoon’s voice whine from the other side of the pillow. Junhui makes the mistake of lowering the pillow to look over at his boyfriend and gets a piece of popcorn right between the eyes.

“Cease fire!” Junhui cries dramatically, rearranging his limbs as best as he can so that his entire body is behind the pillow. He can practically hear Jihoon’s eye roll of fondness. He should know; he’s been on the receiving end of that too many times to count.

“Not unless you tell me what you think about what I just said.”

“You want me to tell you what I think about telling our friends about us?” Junhui clarifies.

“Uh…yeah.”

Uh-oh. That was Jihoon’s insecure voice. Junhui puts the pillow on the floor and crawls over to Jihoon’s side of the couch. He plops himself gracefully in his small boyfriend’s lap and takes his cheeks in his hands. Jihoon keeps his eyes cast down at his hands placed on top of Junhui’s thigh.

Over the last few months, he’s gotten used to this side of Jihoon. Even though he hates to see this side of his boyfriend, he acknowledges it. Lord knows he has his own backpack full of insecurities he carries around with him.

“I would love to tell my friends about you,” Junhui says truthfully.

Jihoon finally meets his eyes and for that, he gets a quick peck on the nose.

“I just…I thought you didn’t want to tell them.”

“I didn’t.”

“So what changed?”

At the very beginning of their relationship, Jihoon had asked Junhui to keep things between them ‘quiet’. Junhui had asked about it and Jihoon only said that his friends and family were kind of pushy and he didn’t want them to scare Junhui away. Junhui didn’t have a problem with it, he secretly had always loved keeping things in a relationship just between the people involved, but he did occasionally have the urge to tell at least one of his friends about his amazing boyfriend. Especially when Soonyoung and Wonwoo were being really cute and couple-y. And Junhui just wanted to prove that he could be as cute with Jihoon as his best friend and his boyfriend. 

Throughout his internal monologue, Jihoon hasn’t said anything. Junhui sighs and squishes his boyfriend’s cheeks.

“Hoonie?”

“I just want to tell them.” Jihoon’s words are a little garbled, what with the cheek-squishing and all, so Junhui relinquishes his hold.

“What’s really the reason though?” Junhui questions. “Like do you finally want to show them what a fine piece of ass you managed to take home or are they forcing you to go on blind dates because they think you’ve been celibate for a year?”

Jihoon groans and hides his head in the crook of Junhui’s neck. The action makes Junhui smile and he pets Jihoon’s head a little until he speaks up in barely even a whisper.

“A little bit of both,” Jihoon admits to Junhui’s neck.

“I knew it!” Junhui throws his arms around Jihoon and squeezes. “I knew you thought I was hot!”

“I knew that would be the part you would focus on,” Jihoon grumbles.

Oh, right.

“Wait, they’re actually setting you up on dates?” Junhui questions.

Jihoon finally escapes from Junhui’s hug and nods, fixing his mussed up hair in the process.

“Jeonghan-hyung, he’s—”

“The pushy but well-intentioned best friend since childhood that’s also the object of your other friend, I think Jisung—no wait, Jisoo’s affection?” Junhui interrupts.

“Yeah, that one, he keeps mentioning this guy he works with that he thinks would be perfect for me. I can usually get out of his shenanigans but he set up a double-date for me and the guy,” he explains.

“Who’s the other couple?”

“Jeonghan-hyung and some other guy—”

“But what about Jisoo?” Junhui can’t help but gasp.

“Jeonghan’s too much of an idiot to see that Jisoo is in love with him, and Jisoo is too much of a coward to tell him. You know, the classic ‘I don’t want to ruin the friendship’ kind of thing.”

“Can’t relate.”

That comment gets a light flick to the forehead.

“But it’s true!” Junhui exclaims while lightly rubbing at the spot on his forehead. “We barely knew each other when we started dating.”

“I know, I just felt like flicking you.”

Jihoon only pokes at Junhui’s pout, and when it doesn’t disappear, he leans forward and kisses the spot on Junhui’s forehead gently. Butterflies start to stir in Junhui’s tummy and he loves that Jihoon can still make him feel that way.

“Anyways,” Jihoon starts, “Are you on board?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been dying to tell the world that I’ve been dating Lee Jihoon for the past five months!”

“Okay, cool.”

“Are you on board?”

“I’m the one who suggested it.”

“Yeah, but you said that because Jeonghan was trying to set you up on dates. Are you actually ready to tell them about me? I know I’m kinda weird and like, not the best boyfriend but—”

“Yah!” Jihoon cuts him off. He has a weird look on his face, like a cross between angry and terrified. “Wait, did you…did you think that I didn’t want to tell people because I’m ashamed of you or something?”

Junhui sighs. Looks like it’s time to go _there_.

“No, just…kind of?”

Jihoon doesn’t say anything but he keeps looking at him like that, so Junhui has to keep talking.

“I’ve just, I guess I’ve been told in the past that like, I’m weird? You know not the fun kind of quirky, but just odd. And that sometimes I don’t take things seriously and joke around too much.”

“Who the fuck said that to you,” Jihoon asks, deathly quiet.

“Well, like all of my exes?”

“Wen Junhui,” Jihoon says slowly. “Look at me.”

Junhui obediently meets Jihoon’s eyes. It isn’t hard; they’ve been tangled up on the couch for the past who knows how long since this conversation started, but Junhui finds keeping the eye contact difficult. Jihoon is looking at him with fire in his eyes.

“Wen Junhui,” Jihoon says again. Junhui tries not to shiver at the way his boyfriend says his name. “You are not weird or odd or whatever the fuck those shitbags told you you are. You are wonderful and amazing and perfect. I have never been and will never be ashamed to be your boyfriend, and I’m honestly so, so sorry if I ever made you feel that way.”

_Damnit_ , here come the tears. Both Junhui and Jihoon start tearing up.

He’s heard it before, mostly from Soonyoung and Seungcheol, and a lot from Minghao when the both of them are drunk; that Junhui has bad taste in romantic partners and that he’s none of the things that they tell him he is. It’s just…when he’s heard it from literally every person he’s dated, he can’t help but think it’s true.

But.

When he hears Jihoon say it, he actually believes it. No questions asked.

Maybe to those ‘shitbags’ he was weird. But for Jihoon, he’s perfect.

It makes him feel all warm and gooey inside, and all snotty and puffed up and red-faced on the outside.

Love is weird like that.

“I guess,” Jihoon continues through his own sniffles, “I didn’t want to tell people because I could tell what we had was—is really special. I didn’t want to share it with others, especially my friends because they love to meddle. And I didn’t want to make it so you couldn’t tell people, but I’ve always been selfish that way. I never asked your opinion either—”

“Oh I would tell you if I disagreed with you,” Junhui says shakily. “I honestly felt the same way. That first night we spent after the club was amazing and magical and I wanted to keep it to myself for as long as I could. But, if you’re afraid like I am that by telling others about us we’ll somehow ruin it…I think we have to face that fear.”

Jihoon nods at him, a few tears spilling onto his cheeks. Junhui does his best to wipe them away.

“But I don’t think we’re that fragile. We’ll be okay, Hoonie.”

Jihoon leans forward and kisses Junhui, all gentle and soft. Junhui’s heart goes crazy, seemingly still not used to being kissed by the best boyfriend.

“But if you think we’re just skipping over what you said about being told that you’re selfish, you’ve got another thing coming. You’re the most amazing person I’ve been with and you listen and you show me you care in such unique little ways and—”

Junhui’s cut off by another kiss, this one a little more hungry than the last. Jihoon cuts off the kiss way too soon and hops up from the couch, holding a hand out to Junhui to help him up. Junhui takes it.

“Let’s go,” Jihoon says, leading Junhui to his bedroom. “We can have emotional sex and then talk about our feelings some more.”

“Fuck yes! Emotional intimacy!” Junhui cheers, jogging ahead in excitement. Jihoon shakes his head and follows after with a fond smile.

See? Perfect for each other.

The day after the emotional breakthrough (and some great sex with lots of eye contact, all that lovey-dovey stuff that Junhui loves about this part of relationships), Junhui decides that he’s going to tell his friends about Jihoon. So, on the next available day that all of them can get together, which happens to be a Wednesday night, he raises his glass of beer and says he has a big announcement.

As per usual, because his friends are more times often than not complete pains in the ass, they all ignore him. Soonyoung is obviously getting a real kick out of it, too, going out of his way to tell Minghao a story he’s told everyone more than a million times in a voice volume roughly equivalent to that of a fighter jet. Hansol and Chan are also having fun, having literally turned around in their chairs away from Junhui to remark about the amazing view from the window of the English-style pub they all frequent more than is probably healthy. Wonwoo and Seungcheol don’t even look up from their meals, inhaling as much food as they can steal now that most of their friends are distracted. Seokmin is the only one who looks at him with pity. He reaches forward and lowers Junhui’s raised glass of beer gently with his hand.

“As someone who gets ignored in this group a lot,” Seokmin starts quietly, “I know it’s best to let them tire themselves out. There’s only so much time until Minghao breaks and starts yelling at Soonyoung-hyung for telling that stupid story for the billionth time.”

Sure enough, Minghao looks like he’s struggling to keep himself in his chair so that he won’t fling himself across the table at Soonyoung.

“Alright!” Minghao finally snaps, throwing a napkin across the table right into Soonyoung’s face before turning to Junhui. “Tell us your fucking news.”

Soonyoung throws the napkin back at Minghao, but the others dutifully look to Junhui.

Junhui raises his glass of beer for a second time and clears his throat.

“I wanted to gather you all together to tell you that—”

“Honestly Jun, you don’t need to tell us every time that rash comes back, you know that right?” Soonyoung interrupts gleefully.

Wonwoo puts a warning hand on his shoulder to calm down, but Soonyoung keeps going anyway.

“Or did someone finally tell you that you’re delusional for thinking that you look like Heechul-sunbaenim?”

“Fuck you I do look like Heechul!” Junhui exclaims, slamming his glass down on the table, making beer spill out over the table while Wonwoo mouths _sunbaenim?_ to himself.

“Why is it so hard for you guys to listen to me?” Junhui continues mournfully. He quickly downs what was left of his beer in a few gulps and slouches down in his seat to pout again.

“We’re sorry, Junnie,” Seungcheol pipes up. He sends warning look to the rest of the group, a silent _shut the fuck up at least until Jun can tell his news, for fuck's sake._ Seokmin even lends him his own glass of beer to use for the announcement and calls over a waiter for another one for himself.

Junhui raises Seokmin’s glass of beer and clears his throat. Again.

“I wanted to gather you all here,” Junhui tries again, eyeing them all closely. Especially Soonyoung. Thankfully, Wonwoo’s put his hand over Soonyoung’s mouth. Okay. Good to go. “To tell you that I am in a romantic relationship. I have a boyfriend,” he clarifies when Hansol cocks his head to the side.

Seokmin immediately erupts in applause.

“Congrats Jun-hyung!” he yells as he pulls him into a hug. The others chime in with their own congratulations and pats on his head or arm or butt (fuck you, Soonyoung, how did you even get over here?) and Seungcheol orders shots for the whole table.

“What’s his name?”

“Is he cute?”

“How old is he?”

“When can we meet him?”

“Jihoon, the cutest, my age, and never.”

Soonyoung and Wonwoo high-five while Soonyoung whispers something about 96-line taking over the world, which should be concerning, but Junhui’s attention is caught by Seungcheol who is actively pouting at him from his spot on the other side of the table. He even has his big dumb eyes doing that pouty thing.

“What?” Junhui directs the question to their oldest friend.

“Why can’t we meet him? I need to know what kind of guy got stuck with you.”

Well.

“Because you say shit like that! You guys are awful friends and I don’t trust you around Jihoon.”

This immediately starts an age-old debate about how, despite being a little chaotic and prone to teasing, they all actually pull through when it counts. And while Junhui know that they’re all 100% true and any one of his friends would do anything for him, he thinks he’s had enough for today. Just telling his friends was an ordeal. After this dinner, he can’t even picture introducing his smol, lovely boyfriend to this mess. He simply won’t do it. At least, for now.

“We’re definitely coming back to this,” Seungcheol warns him, “But the shots are here and I think we should all raise a glass to Junhui finally getting some consistent dicking.”

“To consistent dicking!” they all cheer, earning them a lot of odd looks from others in the pub.

“Wait,” Soonyoung pipes up right after they finish cheering, “Are you sure that this ‘Jihoon’ is not just the name of your right hand?”

Junhui really needs to get better taste in best friends.

“So, how’d it go?”

_“Hmm?”_

“Telling your friends about us.”

_“Oh…uh.”_

“Hoonie, you did tell them, right?”

_“I did! It was just…weird.”_

“How weird?”

_“Well…Jeonghan-hyung told me that he knew I was seeing someone all along? That’s why he was trying to set me up, so that I would finally tell him I was seeing someone.”_

“Oh.”

_“But I didn’t believe him because he’s full of shit.”_

“How about the others?”

_“They seemed surprised, but they congratulated me. Kwannie asked lots of questions. Mingyu asked for a picture but I didn’t give him one. Channie was pretty chill, but that’s normal. I thought Jisoo-hyung was going to start crying when he told me he was proud for getting into a real adult relationship with commitment and everything, like I've never dated anyone before or anything. I told him I’d be proud of him, too, when he will finally be able to confess to his crush—”_

“I think we should set them up!”

_“Junhui that is an awful idea. Jisoo needs to tell Jeonghan on his own or take his feelings to his grave, he deserves it for all the times I had to listen to him rant about Jeonghan’s—well, everything. Anyways…”_

“Yeah.”

_“What’s wrong?”_

“Nothing.”

_“That voice means it’s not ‘nothing’, Wen Junhui.”_

“It’s just. The other day. With my friends? Seungcheol-hyung asked about when he’s going to meet you.”

_“…”_

“Hoonie?”

_“Yeah, uh. I don’t know.”_

“Same. Like. Tonight was rough.”

_“Really? Do they all hate me?”_

“Hoonie, they don’t even know you. I just told them your name. Okay?”

_“Okay. So what then?”_

“They’re just a lot to handle. I mean we were all a little drunk. But. They’re all pains in the ass.”

_“Aren’t all friends though?”_

“I guess so.”

_“Or at least the ones we pick.”_

“It’s going to be a mess.”

_“It’s a mess we’ll face together. When we eventually agree to face it.”_

“Yeah. You’re right.”

_“Always am.”_

“Not true.”

_“Slander. Lies. I will not tolerate this, Wen Junhui.”_

“Whatever.”

_“Go away.”_

“Okay.”

_“No!”_

“What?”

_“I want to keep talking to you!”_

“Me too, babe. But unfortunately I have work tomorrow.”

_“Oh.”_

“Sorry.”

_“Don’t be sorry. I just wanted to spend more time with you.”_

“How about I pick up some takeout after work tomorrow and meet you at your place? We can spend a whole bunch of time together then, okay?”

_“Okay, fine. Lo—uh, goodnight then.”_

“Uh, yeah goodnight, Hoonie.”

_“Night, Junnie.”_

**Part 3: Introducing Your Friends to Your Boyfriend (You know Lee Chan, too?)**

“Look, Hoonie! A meow-meow!”

“Ah, that’s another thing, Jun. Please don’t call me ‘Hoonie’ in front of my friends. Jun? Junhui? Are you listening to me?”

Junhui nods his head, but he’s facing away from Jihoon and crouching to try to pet the probably-feral cat hanging out outside of the grocery store. The cat is gray with a white chest and socks and looks a little thin, but they seem friendly and after sniffing Junhui’s fingers they rub their head against his hand to ask for pets.

Jihoon rolls his eyes. By now he’s learned that even he can’t come before Junhui’s love of animals most times.

“Jun, please stop trying to get rabies and listen to me, please?”

“I heard you, no ‘Hoonie’ in front of the crew. Got it.”

Junhui then abandons his two bags of snacks they had just purchased so that he can pet the cat with both hands. Jihoon juggles his own bags to pull out his phone and curses when he sees what time it is.

“C’mon Jun, we gotta go.”

“But the meow-meow,” Junhui pouts, rubbing the cat’s ears. “What if they don't have anywhere to go?”

“We are not adopting a cat today that was not in the plans.”

“But—” Junhui’s words are cut off as some asshole with a scooter flies past them, startling both Junhui and the cat. Junhui falls on his ass narrowly missing his abandoned grocery bag and the cat scurries off to an alley and out of sight.

Junhui pouts the entire walk back to Jihoon’s apartment. Jihoon only shakes his head at his boyfriend’s love for all animals and kisses his cheek after they get all of the party materials piled on top of Jihoon’s kitchen table.

“Sorry about the cat, babe, but right now we need to get this apartment looking like I actually keep it clean on a regular basis.”

Junhui nods dutifully.

“Okay, I’ll handle the decorations and set up the snacks, you clean,” Junhui says, already moving around the kitchen like he owns the place. The domesticity of the moment has Jihoon smiling.

“Okay!”

Half an hour later, with all of Jihoon’s clothes shoved in his closet, floors vacuumed, and bathroom thoroughly cleaned, Jihoon’s apartment actually looks pretty decent. Junhui laid out all of the snacks and drinks neatly on the table and promised him that the pizza is on the way. The ‘decorations’ he had mentioned earlier consist of a banner hung on the wall behind the couch that says “Happy Meet-My-Boyfriend Party!” and two tiny South Korean and Chinese flags stuck in a vase that used to have some fake flowers. One of the fake flowers wound up behind Junhui’s right ear. His apartment certainly looks…festive. And it’s very Junhui. Jihoon grins. He likes seeing signs of Junhui in his apartment.

“What do you think?” Junhui asks. If Jihoon didn’t know him better, he’d have sworn he sounded nervous.

“It looks good,” Jihoon tells him truthfully. He flops on the couch and pats the space next to him. “It’s very straight to the point.”

“That’s what I thought!” Junhui agrees happily. He joins Jihoon on the couch, and rests his head on Jihoon’s shoulder. “Only a couple minutes until they get here, right?”

Jihoon nods. Only a couple of minutes.

Only a couple of minutes until his rowdy group of friends burst through the door and begin interrogating both Jihoon and Junhui about their past few months together. Oh God. What is he doing? Why did he think this was a good idea? What if his friends drive Junhui away? He doesn’t think he can handle that. What he feels for Junhui is big and scary and he really really doesn’t want to lose him.

The thoughts start swirling and Jihoon feels his heart rate start to pick up. It’s when his breathing starts getting a little erratic that Junhui notices and asks him if he’s okay.

Jihoon shakes his head a little and then he feels himself being entirely surrounded by Junhui. His arms circle around Jihoon easily, and Jihoon hugs him back. He squeezes Junhui and puts his head on Junhui’s chest and breaths in his scent. He listens to Junhui’s heartbeat, nice and strong and steady, and starts to calm down.

“You okay?” Junhui asks again a few minutes later, quiet and calm.

This time, Jihoon nods.

“What are you thinking about?” When Junhui speaks, he kisses the hair on top of Jihoon’s head.

“I’m just worried,” Jihoon says slowly. “That you won’t like my friends. Or they’ll like drive you away or something. I don’t want that.”

“Are they mean?” Junhui asks.

“No. Just. They’re a lot.”

“Lee Jihoon, if you think your friends being ‘a lot’ will drive me away, you’ve got another thing coming,” Junhui assures him with a squeeze. “Unless your friends are bigoted or ignorant, which I’m sure they’re not because they’re your friends, we’ll be fine. It will be okay and I’ll be right by your side all night.”

Jihoon finally looks up at his boyfriend’s face and sees the sincerity there. He takes a deep breath.

“Okay.”

Junhui kisses him. The doorbell rings. They break apart.

“They’re here.”

Jihoon takes five steps toward the door before Junhui grabs his wrist, stopping him.

“Uh, Jun?”

Junhui’s eyes are wide, and he’s looking at Jihoon like he’s terrified.

“You okay?”

“I never thought about it before, but what if your friends hate me? What if they think I’m not good enough for you and tell me to break up with you?”

Junhui starts shaking and visibly jumps when they hear knocks on the door.

“Hey—hey, Jun. It’s okay.”

Now it’s Jihoon’s turn to hug Junhui and tell him that everything will be okay. It’s a little more difficult due to the height difference, but by now Junhui is used to slouching to be enveloped in a special Jihoon hug.

“You’re amazing,” Jihoon murmurs into Junhui’s ear. “You _are_ good enough for me. You’re the best for me. And they have to see that, too, because they’re my friends. Okay? You have nothing to worry about.”

The knocking on the door is starting to get ridiculous (he’s pretty sure it’s Jeonghan or Seungkwan or maybe both) and he really wants to yell at them to fuck off, but he’s a little busy with reassuring his boyfriend right now. So Jihoon continues to hug his boyfriend and whisper reassurances into his ear before he pulls away and kisses Jihoon’s forehead.

“Okay, I think I’m ready,” Junhui tells him, looking more confident than he had been a few minutes previously.

“Me too.”

“But if anything bad happens, I’m running away.”

“I won’t stop you, but let me know that you’re safe, okay?”

“Okay.”

Jihoon takes Junhui’s hand and leads him over to the door. After one more deep breath, he opens it.

Immediately, all of Jihoon’s closest friends spill into his apartment.

“Jesus, fuck, Jihoon answer your goddamn door!” Jeonghan immediately complains loudly.

“We were worried,” Mingyu adds.

“He thought you were dead. That or fucking,” Seungkwan tells Jihoon, pointing to Jisoo, who waves cheerfully.

Jihoon lowkey wants to die. What a horrific way for his friends to make a good first impression on Junhui.

“Hyung?”

Six heads whip around to look at Chan, the last one to make it into the apartment.

“What the actual fuck?” Junhui exclaims. “Channie?”

“You know Chan?” Jihoon questions, though clearly his boyfriend and the maknae of his friend group know each other when Chan pushes his other hyungs aside to throw himself into Junhui’s open arms.

Junhui nods happily, squeezing Chan tight.

“Channie is one of my best friends!”

“I’ve known hyung since forever,” Chan tells them after he extricates himself from the hug. “I didn’t put it together that the ‘Jun’ you talked about was Junhui-hyung and—wow! I guess I just never put it together!”

“Oh.”

Jihoon doesn’t really know what to do with this information, but the way that Junhui looks ten times more relieved than he did a few minutes ago and clinging to Chan makes his heart warm up.

“You know Junhui-ssi?” Jeonghan turns on Chan, looking like a hyena about to descend on its prey with the prey probably being every single piece of information about Junhui including his social security number.

“Ah,” Junhui clears his throat and untangles himself from Chan. “It’s nice to meet you all! My name is Wen Junhui!”

Jihoon’s friends mumble back their greetings and offer their names while they slowly move from the entrance of the apartment and make themselves comfortable in the living room. Jeonghan insists on making the “love birds” sit on the couch, but then sits right next to Junhui. Jisoo and Seungkwan take up residence on the love seat and Mingyu spreads out on the floor like the puppy he pretends not to be. Chan perches on the arm of the sofa on the other side of Jeonghan and Jihoon gives him a grateful smile. With Chan being Junhui’s friend, too, he’ll likely help Jihoon ward off Jeonghan’s assault of questions that will surely emerge in a matter of time.

The conversation starts of a little awkward, with everyone being too polite. They of course ask Junhui about his profession and where he grew up and went to school, with Chan pitching in every so often to provide a few anecdotes about first meeting Junhui in school.

“He used to be angsty,” Chan tells the group with a big smile. “But now he’s a big softy!”

Junhui’s cheeks flush and Jihoon instinctively reaches over and takes his hand into his own, silently giving him support with a little squeeze. Five sets of eyes zoom in on the movement and now Jihoon is the one blushing. He’s known for not liking skinship and actively taking someone else’s hand is practically unheard of, even with most of his previous partners at least in front of his friends.

“How’d you guys meet?” Jisoo asks. He’s smiling, which to most people would be fine. But Jihoon has known him for a long time and he knows that that particular smile is one that he’s picked up after spending long amounts of time with Jeonghan. He’s scheming something, Jihoon knows it.

Before Junhui can answer, Jihoon squeezes his hand again, firmly. He does not want his friends to know that they met at the club the night that he bailed on them. They’ll get the wrong idea and tease the both of them to hell and back.

“The store,” Jihoon lies smoothly. “We both reached for the last thing of milk and our hands touched and we looked at each other and there were sparks.”

Junhui gives Jihoon a quizzical look, that’s also reflected on both Jeonghan and Jisoo’s faces.

“That’s so romantic!” Seungkwan coos as he grasps his hands together wistfully. “Like straight out of a drama!”

Well. Seungkwan doesn’t need to know that it came from a weird dream that he had a couple of nights ago. Jihoon just shrugs.

“But Jihoon-hyung is never romantic!” Mingyu points out, his head cocked to the side.

“He can be when he wants to,” Junhui tells him.

Mingyu wrinkles his nose in disgust. “I refuse to believe that.”

“He cooked me my favorite Chinese food just last week!” Junhui insists.

Jeonghan actually gasps. “He’s never made me anything besides ramyun!”

Jihoon sinks back into the couch and covers his eyes in embarrassment.

“Yeah but Jihoon-hyung was never fucking you,” Seungkwan aims at Jeonghan.

The comment earns disgusted groans from everyone in the room, but mostly Chan who actually gets up off of his seat and smacks Seungkwan upside the head.

“Yah, I’m your hyung!” Seungkwan cries as he tries to grab at Chan so that he can return the favor.

“Don’t talk—about my—hyungs like that!” Chan struggles to get out when Seungkwan succeeds in catching him by the back of the shirt. It soon devolves into a wrestling match on the floor, Mingyu nearly getting pulled in because he made the mistake of trying to pry them apart.

Jihoon’s phone beeps and then there’s a knock on the door. Perfect timing. Jihoon gets up and heads to the door, kicking at whatever parts of Chan and Seungkwan he can reach and pays for the pizza. He turns back around to the chaos still unfolding and now that Chan is otherwise engaged and Jihoon had gotten the pizza, Jeonghan had moved in and he’s talking to Junhui quietly.

Jihoon moves quickly, unsure of what good can come out of Jeonghan talking to Junhui unsupervised and slams the pizzas down on the worn coffee table.

“Yah!” he yells loud enough that Seungkwan and Chan separate from each other in fear. Jihoon takes care to glare at every one of his friends in turn. They all turn very, very quiet. Junhui looks surprised.

“The pizza is here,” Jihoon says quietly. “But none of you fuckers are getting any unless you behave.”

Seungkwan and Chan hang their heads in shame.

“We’re sorry,” Chan apologizes.

“Yeah, sorry for ruining your party Junhui-ssi,” Seungkwan mumbles sheepishly, gesturing to the banner.

“You didn’t ruin anything,” Junhui says softly with a smile. “It’s refreshing to see someone try to put Chan in his place, he’s always so disrespectful. And you can call me hyung. You too, Mingyu.”

Jihoon glares at Jeonghan.

“Um, us too,” Jeonghan says, motioning at himself and Jisoo. “We’re your hyungs now, too.” Jisoo nods earnestly.

Junhui looks at Jihoon and flashes a huge grin. Jihoon’s heart melts. Reluctantly, he opens the top box of pizza to share with the heathens he calls his friends.

The pizza helps to smooth things over a bit after that. Everyone relaxes, even Jihoon, even when Mingyu tries to bring up embarrassing stories about Jihoon. But he’s still definitely thankful when he shoos his friends out of his apartment a few hours later.

Junhui hugs each of them as they leave and promises them that they’ll all get the chance to hang out again soon.

“Not a chance in hell,” Jihoon says with clenched teeth as he pretends to smile while waving at his friends as they wait for the elevator at the end of the hall. Junnui hears it and elbows him.

The door clicks shut and they both collapse in a heap on the couch amidst the clutter that Jihoon’s friends left behind.

“That was…” Junhui starts and then pauses. Jihoon can’t see his face, but he’s sure he’s making the squinty look he gets when he’s trying to think of something. “Interesting,” he eventually lands on.

Jihoon scoffs. “It was a clusterfuck.”

“It wasn’t that bad!” Junhui argues.

He starts to shift so that he’s sitting slumped next to Jihoon. Junhui grabs one of Jihoon’s hands and takes it into his own, tracing the lines on his palms softly. Jihoon closes his eyes and tries to get lost in the feeling, just being with Junhui.

“Our Chan’s are the same person!” Junhui exclaims softly a little while later. “Who knew?”

“Yeah, that was weird,” Jihoon says. He could add more but he’s kind of really tired now. It was a long day.

“It’ll be nice to have him there when you meet my friends.”

Jihoon groans at the thought. Junhui swats at his shoulder playfully.

“Alright Mr. Sleepyhead, I’d offer to help you clean up but I have to be at work early tomorrow so I should probably head home now.”

“Don’t worry about it. Stay.”

Junhui already has his share of Jihoon’s closet, his own brand of hygiene products in the bathroom, and the commute is actually a little shorter.

“Okay,” Junhui agrees without protest, probably because he was waiting for it anyway.

Junhui rarely goes home these days, most nights spent in Jihoon’s bed that’s bigger than the one at his own apartment. He should really just move in. But that’s a kind of scary thought, considering that Jihoon can’t even get the courage to tell Junhui the “L” word. Things with Junhui are so easy that Jihoon’s scared of things moving too fast. He’s known it for a while now, but he can’t seem to convince himself that it’s okay. When things moved too fast with past boyfriends, it often blew up in his face. No, Junhui is special. Jihoon will take his time.

“Let’s go to bed,” Junhui urges, gently pulling at Jihoon’s hand.

He complies, following blearily after Junhui to the bathroom where they brush their teeth and wash their faces in turns before shuffling to the bedroom and changing into their matching pajamas that Junhui had insisted that they buy. Jihoon cuddles up to Junhui’s side, throwing an arm around his middle and setting his head on Junhui’s shoulder. It’s so comfortable and warm and good that Jihoon soon finds himself drifting off.

“’Night, Junnie,” he mumbles into said man’s shoulder, his breaths evening out as he welcomes sleep.

“Goodnight, Hoonie.”

“As part of your initiation into our cult,” Soonyoung shouts, raising a glass of beer over the middle of the table and ignoring Wonwoo’s mumbling something about not referring to their friend group as a ‘cult’. “You have to participate in the Gauntlet!”

A cheer erupts as everyone raises their own glasses, making a lot of the other patrons of the pub look over in interest. Jihoon turns to look at Junhui quizzically but surprisingly Junhui has his head burrowed under his arms on the table. Jihoon turns to Chan instead.

“What the fuck is the Gauntlet?” he asks his youngest friend.

Chan grins at him wickedly. “It’s your initiation into the group, hyung. Everyone has to do it!”

“That’s stupid,” Jihoon mutters quietly, not expecting to be heard by Soonyoung who’s sitting across the table from him.

Soonyoung gasps in shock. “The Gauntlet is the most sacred part of our union!”

“Soon, you were literally the last person at this table to take the Gauntlet,” Wonwoo says, shaking his head and ignoring Soonyoung’s pout. “It’s not that big a deal. It started when we were in college,” he clarifies to Jihoon, nodding his head to the one sitting at the end of the table (Seungcheol, he thinks). “Then when we met Jun and Seokmin and Minghao and we played it with them because we were bored. It kinda became a thing after that. Any new friend or, uh, partner has to complete the Gauntlet to be officially in the group.”

“You don’t have to do it,” Junhui mumbles, peeking at Jihoon. “It really is just a dumb game.”

Jihoon thinks. It sounds incredibly stupid and it probably involves drinking and he doesn’t want to get shitfaced in front of Junhui’s friends the first time that he meets them. But. As stupid as it is, it sounds like it’s a special part of their friend group. He kinda wants to impress them because he knows how much they all mean to Junhui.

“If Jun can do it, I can do it,” Jihoon says with a shrug of his shoulders. Junhui sits up, clearly surprised at that and looking a little worried.

Soonyoung cheers and flags down a waiter to order an absurd amount of drinks. Chan pats his shoulder consolingly.

“Oh hyung,” he says, shaking his head. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten into.”

“The rules,” Seungcheol booms at the end of the table once the drinks have been passed out appropriately. “Are simple. Going in a clockwise circle, everyone within the existing group will ask the couple a question.”

“This is a couples game?” Jihoon whispers to Junhui.

Junhui nods. “We’re on the same team against everyone else.”

“The person in the couple asked has to answer the question. If they don’t want to answer, they have to take a shot and the partner can answer. If neither answer, they both have to take a shot and pay for an extra round of shots for everyone else. If they don’t answer sixty percent of the questions, the couple has to pay the entire bill. However, if they are able to answer all of the questions, the rest of us will treat you. Got it?” Seungcheol looks to Jihoon expectantly.

No.

“Sure,” Jihoon says weakly.

Junhui gently touches his shoulder and leans close to whisper in his ear. “We just have to answer 5 out of 7 of their dumb questions to come out of this without going broke. Um, also, the questions tend to get raunchy. Sorry, you don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to.”

Jihoon’s cheeks heat up and his heart starts to beat a little faster. Partly because he finds Junhui whispering in his ear a big turn on, but he’s also nervous about embarrassing himself in front of Junhui’s friends.

“First up, Lee Chan!”

Chan turns to Jihoon and Jihoon gives him his best please-don’t-be-evil-right-now expression. Thankfully, Chan takes pity on him.

“Jun-hyung,” the youngest addresses Junhui, who’s looking about as nervous as Jihoon feels. “What is your favorite thing about Jihoon-hyung?”

Soonyoung groans, but Junhui tilts his head to the side in thought.

“At first I was really drawn to Jihoon’s smile,” Junhui starts slowly, earning a big ‘awww’ from Seokmin(?) across the table. “But as I’ve gotten to know him, my favorite thing about him is his conscientiousness I think. Like when he pays attention to every detail, he really concentrates on whatever it is; work or conversations or reading the grocery list. And his tongue pokes out sometimes and that’s super cute.”

Jihoon is sure his face is on fire, and his stomach is heating up, too. Damn Junhui for being so sappy.

“Too cheesy, hyung,” Chan tells him with distaste. “Next up, Choi Seungcheol!”

Seungcheol (Jihoon was right, he’s the one sitting at the end of the table) looks between Junhui and Jihoon several times before his big cow eyes settle on Jihoon.

“Jihoon-ssi,” Seungcheol says. Jihoon sits up a little straighter in his seat in preparation. “How did your last relationship end?”

“You don’t have to answer that,” Junhui reminds him carefully. Jihoon nods. He doesn’t really mind talking about it.

“We dated for three years and when I found out he was cheating on me for the last one of those years, I punched him in the balls,” Jihoon says coolly.

Seungcheol’s eyebrows shoot up and disappear into his hairline. “Oh, shit.”

Jihoon nods. “Then I moved out.”

“O-okay,” Seungcheol tells him. “Thanks for sharing. Uh, Seokminnie you’re next.”

Seokmin looks kind of scared, eyeing Jihoon carefully, so he turns to Junhui to answer his question.

“Jun-hyung, what’s your favorite sex position?”

The question shocks Jihoon, especially coming from Seokmin, who Jihoon initially tagged as sweet and somewhat naïve. Soonyoung gives a cheer and they high-five.

(Chan puts his hands over his ears, mumbling something about this being too much for his virgin ears, at which Jihoon scoffs because he knows unwanted details about many of Chan’s sexual encounters. Chan tells Jihoon it’s different because there’s _visuals_ and that he has a reputation to uphold as the innocent group maknae. Jihoon doesn’t know how to respond to that but Chan doesn’t lower his hands from his ears until the game is over.)

Junhui curses and grabs the closest shot glass, downing it quickly. Everyone boos and Junhui just flips them off.

“Jihoon-ssi, you can answer the question if you want.”

Jihoon looks at the shot glass in front of him. It’s tempting. But Jihoon thinks back to the rules; if they answer every question, they won’t have to pay for their meal. He really wants to make them pay, literally. Jihoon’s competitive streak ignites.

“There’s so many options,” Jihoon tries.

Seokmin nods along. “I know it’s hard, but you have to pick one.”

Fuck. Here goes nothing.

Jihoon then goes into an explicit description of his favorite sexual position until Seokmin is satisfied with his response. Beside him, Junhui is silent and staring at a spot in the middle of the table.

“Are you okay?” Jihoon whispers, worried that he’s made his boyfriend uncomfortable by talking about sex with his friends.

Junhui gives a small nod. “Just kinda turned on, not gonna lie.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want to pay for dinner.”

“Me either, let’s make them.”

“That was…very informative,” Seokmin says with a smile. “Next is Soonyoungie-hyung!”

“Junnie,” Soonyoung calls in a sing-songy manner. Junhui looks at Soonyoung with reluctance and Jihoon tries not to yell at Soonyoung for calling his boyfriend ‘Junnie’. That’s only Jihoon’s nickname for his boyfriend goddamnit. “Where’s the weirdest place you’ve has sex with Jihoon-ssi?”

Junhui doesn’t hesitate in answering this time, earning a big roar of approval from Soonyoung’s side of the table. Wonwoo and Minghao ask similar questions about their sex life, which Junhui and Jihoon answer pretty easily with only minimal amounts of embarrassment. Hansol’s the last one to ask his question and puts up a big show thinking about something good to ask.

“Jun-hyung, have you ever been in love?”

Junhui falters a bit at that, sucking in a deep breath that he doesn’t let out until after he answers a couple of seconds later.

“Yeah.”

Jihoon’s heart jumps to his throat at that, though he’s not sure why. Answering Hansol’s question affirmatively only means that Junhui has been in love, it doesn’t have to have been with Jihoon. As long as they’ve been dating, the “L” word hasn’t been brought up; Jihoon has never been the first one to say it and doesn’t say it easily, either.

Both Jihoon and Junhui turn bright pink when the table starts cheering again, and Jihoon thinks he might just be this pink forever after this bizarre evening. But then Chan is hugging him and clapping him on the back.

“Congrats, hyung! You’re officially part of the squad!”

“Even though no one got drunk,” Soonyoung complains, latching himself onto Wonwoo and snuggling into his shoulder. Wonwoo pats his boyfriend’s head and then pokes at his cheek, making Soonyoung laugh.

“But no couple has successfully answered all questions since Seungcheol-hyung and that noona,” Minghao speaks up, giving said Jihoon and Junhui a grin. “You guys are brave.”

“And you don’t have to pay for anything tonight,” Seungcheol adds.

That earns a small cheer from Junhui, who raises his arms in victory and shimmies a little in his seat. Jihoon smiles sappily at his boyfriend. Honestly, he’d do anything for Junhui, to make him happy. And tonight, Jihoon has learned, he’ll even talk about his sex life in detail with next-to strangers.

When they finally leave a few hours later, slightly more intoxicated (they had ordered all of those shots and they had to find _some_ way to use them), Jihoon hangs by the door to check his phone while Junhui tries to get a taxi.

“You’re a good guy, Jihoon,” Seungcheol says quietly from behind him, making him jump. “I think you’re really good for him.”

“Oh, thanks hy—or uh, Seungcheol-ssi,” Jihoon stammers out.

“Hyung is fine,” Seungcheol tells him with a smile. “Hope to see you around more.”

“Hey, I’m the one that’s supposed to be giving the ‘don’t hurt my best friend’ speech!” Soonyoung whines from nearby, struggling with the help of Minghao to hold up a very sleepy and tipsy Wonwoo.

“We can take turns,” Seungcheol assures them, going over and crouching down so that they can hoist Wonwoo on his back to be piggy-backed and Soonyoung can get his own cab.

They all settle safely into their respective cabs and promise to text Seungcheol when they get home. Jihoon leans his head against Junhui’s shoulder and reaches through the darkness to find his hand. When he finds it, he interlaces their fingers and squeezes. Junhui’s hands are always warm.

“That was…”

“A clusterfuck,” Junhui finishes for him with a sleepy smile.

“I think that’s going to be a recurring theme with our friends.”

“Me too.”

“Seungcheol-hyung said I was good for you.”

“That’s what Jeonghan-hyung said to me.”

“Really?”

“Well more or less. He threatened to cut my dick off if I ever hurt you, but then he asked me about my favorite kind of cake to make for my birthday.”

“What a jackass.”

“You’ll probably get a similar speech from Soonyoung soon, he’s been practicing.”

“Can’t wait.”

“Me either. Let me know when it’s happening and I’ll record it.”

“Got it.”

They arrive at Jihoon’s apartment, which was closer to the pub they were at, and pay for the cab before stumbling up the stairs. They fall in a heap on Jihoon’s bed, not bothering to get undressed or even turning on the lights because Jihoon is tipsy and tired and warm. He looks over at Junhui.

There’s a single ray of moonlight shining through the curtains, illuminating a strip of Junhui’s face. His eyes are closes, eyelashes fanning out on his cheeks, skin ethereal in the moonlight. Jihoon traces his brow, the arch of his nose, down to his slightly chapped lips with his eyes, taking him all in. Then Junhui snores, abruptly and ugly and so loud that Jihoon startles before he smiles. He loves this man so much.

**Part 4: Introducing Your Friends to Your Boyfriend’s Friends (The worst dinner ever)**

“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.”

Junhui sighs. He’s standing with Jihoon just outside of the restaurant they had arranged for all of their friends to meet together for the first time. Screw slowly introducing them in small groups; it was bound to be a mess anyway so why not make it the biggest mess possible? In that sense, a large part of Junhui agrees with Jihoon wholeheartedly. They probably shouldn’t be doing this. But they’ve already arranged it and he’s received texts from both Wonwoo and Seokmin saying that they’re already at the restaurant. They’re kind of stuck now.

“Babe, it’s happening.”

“We could just run away,” Jihoon argues, eyes pleading. Junhui’s heart sinks. He pulls his boyfriend into his chest and strokes his hair. Jihoon immediately wraps his arms around Junhui’s middle, pulling him so that their chests (well Junhui’s chest and Jihoon’s neck) are flush together.

“Jihoon. If you tell me right now that you really don’t want to do this, I’ll run away with you. We’ll go back to my place or yours and ghost our friends until they stop calling us every five seconds or threatening to kick our doors down.”

“You’d do that for me?” Jihoon asks, pulling back to look Junhui in the eyes.

“I’d do anything for you,” is Junhui’s response.

“That’s cheesy,” Jihoon scolds him before rising up to his tiptoes so that he can kiss Junhui firmly on the mouth. They get a little carried away and it takes a disgruntled _humph!_ from some woman trying to get past them on the sidewalk.

After apologizing to the woman (she let’s them off with a warning to kiss any place that isn’t the middle of the sidewalk), Junhui promises that he’ll give Jihoon more where that came from after the dinner party is over.

“I guess I’ll go through with it,” Jihoon says with new determination.

Junhui grins and quickly grabs Jihoon’s hand to pull him into the restaurant.

“It’s going to be fine,” Junhui adds, pulling Jihoon close to him so that they don’t bump into anyone waiting in line. “Plus I told the guys how important this dinner is to me, to us. They’ll be on their best behavior, promise.”

It takes only a second to spot their large combined friend group at a huge table toward the back of the restaurant, and it takes approximately three more seconds to spot that something is very wrong.

Junhui’s eyes are first drawn to Jeonghan, who’s standing at one end of the table glaring daggers at Seungcheol. Jisoo is holding onto one of his arms and looks to be trying to calm him down. Then he hears Minghao, who is speaking rapid fire Mandarin in an angry tone, with some creative expletives thrown in at a terrified Mingyu. Wonwoo and Chan are trying to intervene, but Minghao just keeps getting more worked up. Further down the table, Seungkwan is beet red and huddled together with Soonyoung and Seokmin, who are trying their best to hold in their laughter and failing, making Seungkwan look all the more distressed. He can’t see Hansol anywhere, but by this point their table has the entire restaurant as an audience, people turning to look and gape at the ruckus their friends are making.

A nervous-looking waiter comes over to Junhui and Jihoon, who have stopped in their tracks a few feet away from the table in shock at the sheer loudness that is coming from the table. They’re all so busy arguing or laughing or trying to calm someone else down that none of their friends have recognized them yet.

“Excuse me, are you with that party?” the waiter asks, gesturing to their friends’ table.

Junhui is very tempted to say no, but he nods his head a little numbly.

“Please explain to them that this is a family establishment and if they can’t, uh, control themselves that they will be asked to leave.”

Junhui apologizes to the waiter, then looks back at his friends.

A fire starts burning in Junhui’s stomach, angry and right now white hot. This is supposed to be a fun thing for all of them, not some shit show or whatever the fuck is happening in front of him. And though he normally accepts his friends’ silly antics, he’s pissed. They all know how important this dinner is for him, for him and Jihoon.

Scowl on his face, Junhui marches forward, right to the middle of the long table, Jihoon trailing behind him. Without thinking, Junhui slams his hands down on the table, effectively getting the attention of not only all of his friends, but the rest of the restaurant as well.

“What the actual fuck, you guys?” he whispers loudly enough that only those at the table can hear him. Everyone’s eyes go wide with shock. “What is going on?”

When no one answers (which only acts to fuel to his anger), he looks to Chan, who knows everyone at the table and should have some sort of knowledge as to what is happening.

Chan shrugs, fear in his eyes. “Jeonghannie-hyung doesn’t like Seungcheol-hyung for some reason and I honestly have no idea what Hao-hyung is mad at but as soon as Seungkwan-hyung and Hansol-hyung saw each other, Seungkwan-hyung screamed and Hansol-hyung ran away and—”

“This was supposed to be a fun thing and I’m actually kind of pissed that you guys can’t keep your shit together and realize how fucking terrified me and Jihoon were for you all to meet because we thought something like this might happen. I will _not_ eat dinner with you all and the love of my life if you insist on acting like actual children,” Junhui sneers.

And with that, he turns on his heel, grabs Jihoon’s hand and storms out of the restaurant. Once out of the restaurant, he keeps walking, keeps hold of Jihoon’s hand, and doesn’t really know where he’s going and let’s his anger fuel him until he ends up in front of his own apartment. The realization that he stormed out of a dinner with his friends allows for a small seed of guilt to plant itself somewhere close to his heart, but he tries to focus instead on punching in his code and throwing the door open with a bang.

Jihoon silently follows him inside, toeing off his shoes next to Junhui’s and gently sitting on the opposite end of the couch, a wide gap between them. Junhui starts to breathe then, nice and slow. He closes his eyes and pictures a calming scene in front of him, still taking deep breaths. The white hot fire in his gut slowly decreases in size until it's a mess of managable embers.

When he opens his eyes, Jihoon is still sitting on the couch but now there’s a glass of water sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He didn’t even hear Jihoon get up from the couch. He reaches forward and takes a few grateful sips.

“I haven’t done that in a while,” Junhui says softly a minute later after putting his cup on the table. “I used to get so angry a lot, especially after we moved here.” 

Jihoon doesn’t say anything so he keeps going.

“Just when I saw them all, arguing and freaking out, I just got so mad. I mean, we freaked out at every step before this but everything turned out for the most part okay. It’s like they didn’t even think about us, about what this dinner meant to us and how much coordination we had to do to get the restaurant and everyone’s schedules lined up and…maybe I put too much thought into this dinner than I should have but I was just really upset.”

“It’s okay,” Jihoon whispers.

“No it’s not,” Junhui replies, scowling down at his socks. They have little smiling cats on them, a gift from Soonyoung on his birthday. “I shouldn’t have left like that.”

“I mean it’s okay to be upset,” Jihoon clarifies. “They were on the verge of getting kicked out before we even got there.”

“Still…” Junhui frowns, recounting the events of the last hour, turning over the words he had spat at his friends when he was angry.

_“I will_ not _eat dinner with you all and the love of my life if you insist on acting like actual children!”_

Wait.

“Um Hoonie?” Junhui asks tentatively, turning to look at Jihoon carefully. Jihoon isn’t looking at him, just looking at his hands with a blank expression on his face. “Did I do that thing where I say something without really thinking about it again?”

Gently, Jihoon nods.

Fuck, he thought so. He had definitely been thinking about it a lot lately, telling Jihoon that he loves him. It’s not something he usually thinks so hard about, but Jihoon is different and he had worried so much about saying it too early and freaking him out or something. And now he’s fucked up and basically admitted that he’s in love with Jihoon to his entire friend group before talking with Jihoon about it.

Junhui scoots closer to Jihoon on the couch, running through different dialogues in his head that will not fuck this day up more than it already has been. Every scenario ends with either Jihoon leaving or Junhui crying (or both), so all he ends up doing is looking at Jihoon with panic in his eyes, his hands palm-up and useless on his knees.

When Jihoon finally looks at him, his face splits into a grin. He reaches forward and puts a hand on Junhui’s cheek.

“Stop worrying you dork,” Jihoon says while shaking his head. “I feel the same way.”

“You—you…love?” Junhui splutters, not quite sure that that’s what Jihoon is even talking about.

Jihoon takes a deep breath and looks directly into Junhui’s eyes intensely. “I love you,” he says softly. “I really, really love you.”

Junhui’s heart soars. “Fuck, I love you too.”

This is probably one of the weirdest ways he’s ever accidentally confessed his love for someone, but it works. Junhui leans forward, crowding Jihoon against his end of the couch and kissing him deeply. Jihoon responds enthusiastically, grabbing the front of Junhui’s shirt and pulling him, pressing their chests together. Junhui’s heart is so, so full and now he has Jihoon under him, eager and very handsy and they’ve just expressed their love for each other that’s probably long overdue with how _much_ Junhui feels toward Jihoon and—

Before they can get too carried away, Junhui’s doorbell rings. Jihoon pushes Junhui away, clearly startled at the sudden noise, but Junhui is content to leave whoever it is on his doorstep until he’s done making a mess of the boyfriend that he loves. But the doorbell rings again and Jihoon gently pushes him away again and says he should just get the door so that they can continue after. Junhui sighs, climbing off the couch and jogging in place for a bit so that the situation in his pants calms down a little.

When he opens the door, he’s actually kind of surprised to see his friends standing there, looking appropriately ashamed. Well, most of them. Soonyoung reaches forward to fix Junhui’s hair before giving a small grin.

Oh. He probably looks a little fucked out right now. Well, whatever. Let his friends see that he’s been getting frisky while they’ve been worrying about letting Junhui down. He doesn’t care.

Instead of saying anything, he just turns around and walks back to the couch, flopping next to Jihoon who is now sitting up straight and fixing his own hair. It doesn’t matter because his lips are bright red from kissing and his neck is pink. Junhui gives him a small smile and helps to fix his hair, but when he turns back to his friends, his stare is ice cold.

Their friends settle in on Junhui’s furniture, filling up his small living room quickly. Nobody talks and it’s really awkward trying not to make eye contact. No way in fuck is Junhui starting first, even though he’s playing host right now. Thankfully, Seungcheol is the first one to speak up.

“I think I speak for all of us when we say that we’re sorry,” Seungcheol says. “We were way out of line and we weren’t being good friends to realize how much this dinner meant to the both of you.”

“We discovered that some of us have actually met before,” Jeonghan adds, eyes darting over to Seungcheol. “And instead of settling our disagreements civilly, we acted like children.”

Jisoo nods next to him. “We’re really sorry.”

Junhui looks at Jihoon, who just shrugs his shoulders.

“We forgive you,” Junhui translates, making the entire room collectively let out a sigh of relief. Sue him, but Junhui is in a very good mood now, even with his glaring and pissed off aura. And they’re his friends after all, he can never stay mad at them for too long. Nothing that some time and the promise of sexy times in the future with his lovely boyfriend can’t fix.

“But I kinda want an explanation.” Junhui thinks he deserves that, at least.

Soonyoung raises his hand, so Junhui points at him.

“Me, Seokminnie, and Seungkwannie actually live together,” he starts, pointing to each of them in turn. “And one time Hansollie came to our apartment to eat but we didn’t tell Seungkwannie beforehand and he was walking around in just his underwear and Hansollie saw him and got really embarrassed.”

Seungkwan’s face turns bright red before he slumps into Seokmin and hides his head under Seokmin’s arm. Seokmin pats him consolingly, but his devilish grin deceives him. Junhui turns to look at Hansol on the opposite side of the room, and he’s blushing hard as well, trying to play it off in a cool way like he usually does. Hm. Knowing Hansol, it seems like he maybe liked what he saw. Junhui will have to keep an eye on them in the future.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Jihoon says while kicking at Seungkwan in an attempt to comfort him as well. “At least he didn’t see your junk.”

Seungkwan groans and Hansol shifts uncomfortably.

“See, problem solved! Case closed!” Junhui cheers, clapping a pretend gavel against the arm of the couch.

The collective eye roll in response to Junhui’s antics could have probably caused an earthquake, there was so much force behind it.

“What about you?” Jihoon points to Jeonghan accompanied with a disapproving glare.

“That punk,” Jeonghan spits, once again looking at Seungcheol. “He made me get a parking ticket.”

“My name is Seungcheol and I did not _make_ you get a ticket. You got that by yourself.”

“You’re the one who took my spot!”

“It wasn’t your spot!”

“But that’s where I usually park!”

“It didn’t have your name on it!”

“Guys!” Jisoo interrupts, putting a gentle hand on Jeonghan’s knee. “Enough arguing. I got each of you to admit that you were wrong and apologize, what happened?”

“Sorry, Shua,” Jeonghan pouts, looking at Jisoo cutely. “You know how I am.”

Jisoo gulps, then nods jerkily.

“Yeah, me too,” Seungcheol adds. “What happened is in the past. No more talking about parking tickets.”

“Who else was arguing?” Junhui asks, switching from pretending to be a judge to an auctioneer looking for the best bid.

Chan points at Minghao and Mingyu. Junhui gives them a look that says _spill._

“He spilled coffee on me once,” Minghao admits, looking a little embarrassed.

“Only Minghao would get that worked up about someone spilling coffee on him,” Junhui says, trying to hold back his laughter. “Was it Gucci?”

Minghao nods reluctantly.

“I said I was sorry,” Mingyu offers meekly from where he’s hiding behind Chan. Minghao only rolls his eyes and mumbles something about learning to use those ridiculously long legs appropriately sometime. And that’s about as close as Mingyu will ever get to Minghao ever accepting his apology, Junhui muses.

He sighs, looks around the room at twelve of arguably his most favorite people on the planet. The tension from earlier is slowly seeping away, and he can start to see where the pieces of his and Jihoon’s different friendship puzzles might someday finally fit together. Junhui smiles.

“I can’t take you guys anywhere.”

An hour and a booze run later, everyone is significantly less stressed than before, all spread out on the floor to play the “Mega Guantlet” that had hastily been revised by Seungcheol and Wonwoo. Junhui has no idea how it works, but apparently he’s a judge along with Jihoon. That’s okay with him. It lets him sit next to his boyfriend, love of his life, shoulders touching. And everyone is so busy yelling and arguing about the rules and the dumb questions that nobody says anything when Junhui puts his arm around Jihoon’s shoulders or when he kisses Jihoon’s cheek or when Jihoon turns his head and catches a kiss with his lips instead.

For such a shitty start to the day, Junhui ended up feeling pretty happy. Everything might turn out okay anyways. **  
**

**Part 5: Living Happily Ever After (Or at least living happily together, seriously they’ll take what they can get)**

The only warning Jihoon has before his boyfriend crashes into his back is a small cry and an expletive in Mandarin that Jihoon picked up pretty quickly after being with Junhui.

Jihoon grumbles and tries to shrug his boyfriend off of him, but Junhui just acts like a big wet blanket and latches himself onto Jihoon’s back.

“C’mon, Junnie, I’m trying to open the door,” Jihoon whines. He is indeed trying to open the door to their apartment while also juggling two bags of groceries. Junhui is being of no help right now.

“I just tripped over my love for you,” Junhui whispers right in Jihoon’s ear before kissing the side of his head roughly.

“That’s…unexpected,” Jihoon can’t help but chuckle at his boyfriend’s antics.

“Love makes you do unexpected things.”

Jihoon snorts, but effectively unlocks the door and pushes it open to reveal the dark inside of their apartment.

“Junnie,” Jihoon whines when Junhui doesn’t unstuck himself from his back. “Can you please stop? I can’t get my shoes off.”

Speaking of, did they really leave their shoes this messy before? He doesn’t remember there being such a big heap when they left for the store an hour ago.

“Say the magic words, Hoonie,” Junhui sings right in his ear.

Jihoon sighs, but he still smiles a bit. “I love you?” Jihoon guesses.

Junhui squeals in delight and kisses the top of Jihoon’s head. Jihoon shakes his head while balancing the bags and his boyfriend carefully so that he can flip on the light switch.

They both scream.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?”

Instead of coming back to their empty apartment, there are eleven bodies occupying their living room and kitchen in varying stages of shock and amusement.

“Surprise?” Chan offers weakly with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Happy one year anniversary!” Soonyoung cries, throwing a handful of confetti in the air. Minghao has Yue curled up in his arms and deftly sidesteps it so that neither he nor the cat is covered in it.

Somehow, Jihoon hadn’t dropped his grocery bags onto the floor during his heart attack and he now places them gently on the floor in front of his feet.

“It’s not our anniversary,” Jihoon manages to get out though the rest of his body is still kind of rigid from alarm.

Jeonghan tilts his head to the side. “Did we get the day of the week wrong?”  
  


Jihoon nods slowly.

“Aw, I thought we had it figured out!” Jeonghan continues, moving forward to wrap both Jihoon and Junhui in awkward hugs. “I figured it was a little before you told us?”

“Hyung,” Jihoon says quietly, gently shoving Jeonghan off of him. “Our anniversary was in October.”

That earns a shocked gasp not only from Jeonghan, but most of the people in the room.

“You hid it from us for _five months_?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Oh my god, I owe Chan like 50,000 won!”

“Can you really blame us?” Jihoon asks weakly. “You’re the ones who broke into our apartment to scare the shit out of us.”

“You should really be more careful with your passcodes, hyungs,” Mingyu tells them solemnly.

“Well, we can still celebrate your seventeen month anniversary!” Seungkwan announces after counting quickly. “Shit, who had the cake?”

Wonwoo shuffles forward slowly, a pretty cake held carefully in his hands. There’s a single, spindly candle sticking out of it that Soonyoung swiftly lights while Jeonghan reaches around Jihoon to turn the lights off again.

Their apartment then fills with the sounds of all of their friends singing a revised version of the birthday song; some off-key and some showing off with riffs and fancy harmonies. And with the candle flickering and sparking wildly, lighting up his friends’ faces, capturing their happiness in small little snapshots, Jihoon finds a happiness leaking into his own chest. He glances at Junhui and sees a sincere smile playing on his boyfriend’s lips, his eyes even a little watery. Jihoon begins laughing then, letting his feelings bubble up inside of him and make him feel all light and floaty. Though he would never admit it to anyone, he doesn’t think there’s been a moment he’s felt so loved or so loving before than right now, in the tiny apartment he shares with his boyfriend while their friends sing to them on a made-up anniversary.

The song finishes eventually and Jihoon and Junhui lean forward gently to blow out the candle. Everyone cheers and someone turns the lights back on and Jihoon doesn’t think, just feels, when he pulls Junhui into a crushing kiss in front of everyone.

By now, everyone is pretty used to their minimal displays of affection, but they don’t normally kiss like this in front of the others. It earns them some wolf-whistles and teasing, but Jihoon would do it again and again and again to see Junhui pull away from him grinning and blushing a pretty pink color.

Soon, though, he’s being shepherded to his own couch along with Junhui, while someone takes care of their groceries and Chan starts shoving cards and presents at them. Jihoon isn’t too sure that this is standard procedure for celebrating a one-year anniversary with friends, but he goes along with it, trying not to tear up at the heartfelt messages from Seungcheol and Mingyu and threatening to choke Soonyoung when Junhui opens up a gift bag that is chock-full of condoms.

They all soon settle into their normal routine when they all get together, which happens more than one would think despite initial impressions and busy schedules. There’s food being delivered and something playing on the TV that no one’s paying attention to because they’re all too noisy.

In the last few months, they’d all gotten pretty close. Jeonghan and Seungcheol no longer argue about the parking ticket, but they do get a little stiff whenever they’re in a car with each other. Jisoo is still pining over Jeonghan, but Jihoon knows he’s slowly gathering up his courage to tell Jeonghan his feelings soon. Mingyu and Minghao are actually almost inseparable these days and often hang out by themselves or with Seokmin without the rest of the group. Hansol and Seungkwan have also made up, but they’re a little more distant with each other. Jihoon is almost 100 percent sure that Junhui and Chan are working together to try to set them up. And Soonyoung and Wonwoo are as they always have been; bickering and seldom getting along but sneaking kisses and loving glances when they think others aren’t looking.

“What are you thinking about?” Junhui whispers quietly. “You have a goofy look on your face.”

He’s leaning against Jihoon on the couch while they take turns to feed each other bits of food. They would normally get teased for doing that, but Seungkwan had told them that they earned a “free pass” for the day and were allowed to be as gross as they wanted to without anyone being able to say anything for the whole party. Yue is purring softly from where she’s perched on top of the couch right behind Jihoon’s head, wisely choosing to stay away from Minghao and Wonwoo who had been making grabby-hands at her for the past hour or so.

Jihoon shrugs, but Junhui reaches up to poke Jihoon’s cheek. He sighs.

“Just everything,” he admits quietly. “How much things have changed and how different things were before.”

Junhui grins at him before nuzzling into his neck.

“Me too,” Junhui whispers.

Seventeen months ago, Jihoon was at a club with his friends, having a bad time and secretly wishing he’d been able to stay at home. But then some random guy on the dance floor came up to him and faceplanted and he changed his entire life.

He has a loving, wonderful boyfriend that he lives with now and a phone full of contacts of friends who would drop what they’re doing in an instant if Jihoon needed them and entertain him whether he wants them to or not. His life is so full now, of love and warmth and comfort. And even though sometimes he and Junhui fight or their friends think it’s a great idea to throw a surprise anniversary party without actually knowing the date of their anniversary, he doesn’t think he’d ever trade it for anything else.

“I’m happy,” he says, meaning it in every sense of the word. He squeezes Junhui tighter to his side, enjoying the warmth and the surprised squeak from his boyfriend.

“Me too.”

**Part 6: Finally Alone (Or, the real one year anniversary story)**

Junhui suddenly feels a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. He pauses his cooking, carefully taking the pan off of the lit burner and placing it on a cool one before getting his phone out of his pocket and checking the time. Weird. Jihoon should definitely be here by now and he knows the passcode so he should be able to let himself in.

Junhui frowns, sticking his phone back in his pocket and walking to his front door to look out of the peep hole. Surprisingly, he can see the back of Jihoon’s head right outside of his door, unmoving. Apparently, Junhui’s boyfriend senses were tingling. 

Jihoon probably got cold feet and is freaking out about the fact that it’s their one year anniversary and honestly, Junhui can’t blame him. He’s kind of freaking out too. Just getting to this milestone is a big feat, but he’s also kind of nervous about giving Jihoon his present, not sure if he did too much or stepped over a line. He just…he really loves Jihoon and wants the best for him.

With a small sigh, Junhui carefully opens the door and pokes his head out.

“What’re you doing?” Junhui asks quietly, startling Jihoon a little bit.

Jihoon slowly turns around and reveals a large cardboard box held in his arms. His boyfriend looks apprehensive (and very cute in a fuzzy yellow sweater), as he had guessed, but most surprising is the movement coming from the open box. Junhui carefully peers inside and almost shouts at what he sees.

Inside the box, on top of a light blue blanket is a small cat. The cat is thin, with gray fur and white socks and green eyes that peer at Junhui curiously. It’s the same damn stray cat that frequents the grocery store, he’s sure of it.

“Jihoonie,” Junhui squeaks excitedly, reaching into the box to let the cat sniff at his hand. “Is this the meow-meow?”

He can see Jihoon nod in his periphery, but honestly, he can’t take his eyes off of the small cat. It’s the same fucking cat. The one that he’s seen and worried about for months that hangs out outside of the grocery store that’s close to Jihoon’s apartment. There’s no mistaking the gray and white patterning of her fur, the green of her eyes that seems so much brighter now that she looks properly groomed and fed.

His boyfriend really is amazing.

After the cat is done sniffing him, she knocks her head against Junhui’s hand and Junhui squeals, petting the soft fur on the top of her head. Junhui just about loses it when she starts purring and when he’s met with no aggression, he reaches gently into the box and picks up the cat, cradling her in his arms. He walks in a daze into his apartment and settles himself on the couch, with the cat still purring away in his arms. Junhui faintly registers the click of the door closing and a weight settling on the other side of the couch that must be Jihoon.

After a minute, without taking his eyes off of the cat, Junhui asks “Why did you bring a cat, the beautiful stray cat from the grocery store, to our anniversary dinner? Isn’t it weird to have a guest list?”

Jihoon clears his throat.

“Well, um, she’s yours,” Jihoon says and Junhui can hear the nervousness bleeding through his boyfriend’s voice easily. “If you want her, that is. I can take her back to my apartment if she’s a problem.”

Junhui pauses petting his baby’s ears, hope bubbling up in his core. “Really?”

Jihoon nods again. “I went to visit the shelter and I recognized her instantly. I guess someone finally brought her in. She got all of her shots and no one else was interested in adopting her so I was first in line.”

“How long have you been keeping this princess from me?” Junhui asks with a pout, especially when the cat mewls in his arms for Junhui to continue his petting.

“A few days,” Jihoon admits, scratching the back of his neck. “That’s why I had to cancel movie night at my place.”

Junhui tsks at his boyfriend. Even though the gesture is nice and all, he would have appreciated any extra time he could have gotten with his baby.

“Did you give her a name?” he asks instead of berating Jihoon.

“I’ve been calling her Yue.”

Junhui looks at his boyfriend properly for the first time since he set eyes on the cat. Jihoon’s cheeks are bright red and he’s looking away with his hands in his lap likes he’s all embarrassed. Junhui is so fucking in love and he literally has the cutest boy on the planet. Only Jihoon could plan something so perfect like this and still be embarrassed after.

“It suits her,” Junhui says happily, slowly bringing his face close to the cat’s—Yue’s—so that he can press a tentative kiss on her forehead. She receives it happily and licks at Junhui’s hand when he moves away.

“She might be hungry,” Jihoon says, scooting the forgotten cardboard box across the floor to Junhui with his foot. “I packed up the food she seemed to like and the litter and food dishes I’d bought, but you can pick out better stuff if you want.”

Immediately, Junhui gets down on the floor and rifles through the box to get a can of cat food out for Yue, and sets the cute pink food dish Jihoon had been using on the floor right in front of the couch. Yue shows interest and begins eating the food right away. Junhui looks on in awe and doesn’t even realize that Jihoon had filled up a similar pink dish with water for Yue to lap at.

“Oh, our Yue has such a good appetite!” he praises.

It’s only after a few minutes of watching Yue eat happily and Junhui remembers what he was doing before his boyfriend showed up.

“The food!” Junhui squeals suddenly, making Yue jump. Junhui hurries back to the kitchen, thankful he had taken the pasta off of the heat. Jihoon comes up behind him and wraps his arms around his middle.

“What are you making?” he asks into the back of Junhui’s shirt.

“Well I _was_ making some pasta. I finished it up right before you got here,” Junhui explains as he checks to see if the pasta cooled down too much. The noodles are still warm, so Junhui starts getting the plates and silverware they’ll need for the meal, Jihoon still clinging to his back the entire time. Before too long, Junhui has set a very romantic table covered with rose petals and candles, with two bowls of his signature spicy spaghetti and two glasses of wine. Jihoon has to unrwrap himself from Junhui so that he can sit in his own chair, and he pouts cutely as he does it. Junhui leans over the table to gently kiss his pout away.

Junhui raises his glass so that he can clink it with Jihoon’s.

“Happy anniversary, Hoonie.”

“Happy anniversary, Junnie.”

Dinner is nice and quiet with Junhui telling Jihoon about his day at work and Jihoon going into more detail about how he ended up with Yue. Junhui is just getting a little tipsy from the wine when a sudden thought crosses his mind.

“I forgot about your present!” he shouts at Jihoon, almost spilling his glass of wine in frustration.

“You didn’t have to—”

“Oh shut your face Lee Jihoon, of course I have to get the best boyfriend in the world a present!”

“So what did you get yourself?”

“That was so gross.”

Jihoon shrugs. “I learned from the best.”

Junhui rolls his eyes and gets up from the table to slide in his socks to his bedroom where he’d been hiding Jihoon’s anniversary present. Looking at it now, with Jihoon in its vicinity, Junhui wonders if it’s too much. He suddenly isn’t sure if Jihoon would be as pleased with the present as Junhui had been when he made it. After all, Jihoon had been pretty reluctant to open up fully to Junhui. What if he thinks it’s an invasion of privacy or something?

But then again, Jihoon had gotten Junhui a whole cat for a present without asking him about it first. And it’s not like Jihoon would break up with him over this, right?

Junhui just loves Jihoon so much and wants the best things in the world for him, things that maybe he hasn’t even considered yet. Junhui takes a deep breath and grips the small package tighter. He’ll never know if he never tries.

When he exits his bedroom, he finds Jihoon cleaning up in the kitchen. He had cleared the table, put away the leftovers, and was now washing the dishes with a curious Yue peering at him from the freshly cleared counter space. The scene is so domestic that it physically hurts Junhui to rip his eyeballs away from the scene and tap Jihoon on the shoulder.

Jihoon turns and Junhui holds out the present cautiously.

“Happy anniversary, babe,” he says in a small voice.

Jihoon looks at the wrapped gift curiously before muttering a soft ‘thanks’. Junhui watches in anticipation as Jihoon carefully unwraps the gift, heart suddenly in his throat.

“What is it? A blank CD?” Jihoon asks, looking closely at the CD case.

Junhui shakes his head. “Not blank. Here,” he says, holding his hand out and taking Jihoon’s to lead him over to the huge stereo system that had been a hand-me-down from his older neighbor when he went to college.

Jihoon dutifully takes out the CD and puts it into the player, head tilted to the side with curiosity. Junhui presses play.

It takes Jihoon a second to realize what’s playing. Junhui can see the second the spark of recognition that lights up his boyfriend’s eyes when he hears the track to one of the original songs he’d composed.

“That’s—wait…what the actual fuck?”

Jihoon had reluctantly let Junhui hear some of his music a couple of months ago with one strict rule that Jihoon did not want to be with Junhui when he listened to it. And no matter how much Junhui gushed about how good the music was, all Jihoon could do was shrug off the praise as too much time spent on a useless hobby. So Junhui had taken it upon himself to show his boyfriend just how good he was at composing, to show him how talented he was.

So Junhui pulled some strings. Being somewhat of a musician himself, he’d crafted a melody over the beats of one of his favorite songs Jihoon had let him borrow to listen to. He’d asked for almost all of his friends’ help to write coherent lyrics, without telling them what the project was actually for, and contacted that same neighbor who gave him the stereo (who had since become a well-known producer usually going by the pseudonym ‘Bumzu’) to help him record his own vocals to make a guide.

And now he’s waiting, peering carefully at his boyfriend’s quizzical expression. He begins shaking his leg, an old nervous habit, because Jihoon hasn’t said anything for a while. At least he hasn’t punched the stereo in disgust or started yelling at Junhui for creating a monster out of his precious music. As far as Junhui can tell, but the slight tilt of his head, a single raised eyebrow, and a bit of tongue poking out from between his teeth, Jihoon is listening. Like actually listening, hearing every beat and note and warble of Junhui’s voice. It’s starting to make Junhui feel self-conscious, Jihoon listening to something that he helped to create so intently and he suddenly gets it now, gets why Jihoon doesn’t let other people listen to his music. Junhui took such care when singing, when creating lyrics, he would hate it if Jihoon didn’t like it. He really wants Jihoon to like it.

After an eternity, the song finally ends. Jihoon remains silent.

“So…did you…like it?” Junhui asks softly.

Jihoon gulps.

“I—I’ve never, um, heard my song that…that way before.”

Oh. He hates it.

Junhui’s face falls, his composure with it, and he throws himself onto the couch so that he can hide his face on the cushions. He hears Yue pad up to him cautiously and nose at his hand, so he gently gives her some pats between her ears.

Jihoon clears his throat and then Junhui hears his voice, from closer than he realized.

“It’s just...none of my songs have ever sounded like that before,” Jihoon says slowly.

Junhui moves his head and finds himself face to face with Jihoon, who now kneels on the floor next to Junhui. His eyes are tearing up a little bit.

“It was beautiful.”

Junhui takes Jihoon’s face in his hands and pulls him close, kissing him messily and trying to convey all of the love and support he can through the one kiss. Jihoon is the one who comes up for air first, taking deep breaths while resting his forehead against Junhui’s.

“I didn’t know you could sing like that,” Jihoon adds after a beat.

“It was your song that made me want to sing like that.”

“That’s cheesy,” Jihoon reprimands not too harshly.

“No, that’s the truth.”

Jihoon rolls his eyes, then pats at Junhui’s leg. Junhui understands that as Jihoon asking if he can sit with him on the couch, so Junhui sits up and arranges his limbs so that Jihoon can lean comfortably on his shoulder. They sit in silence for a few moments, eyes following Yue’s tail as she cautiously starts to explore the rest of the apartment.

“How did you come up with the lyrics?” Jihoon asks after a bit.

“I’m a genius,” Junhui says easily.

Junhui doesn’t even have to look at Jihoon to know that he doesn’t accept that as a real answer.

“Okay, fine,” he continues, “I had some help. And no, before you ask, nobody else heard the song.”

“But the melody?”

“If you listen it was already kind of in there, I just brought it out.”

Jihoon hums quietly to himself, nodding a little bit.

“So…do you get what I was trying to tell you?” Junhui asks hesitantly.

“What?”  
  


“You’re so talented! With a little TLC, those songs you wrote could really be turned into something beautiful,” Junhui praises while gently putting his head on top of Jihoon’s and reaching around to find one of his hands to squeeze.

Jihoon bites his lip. “Maybe.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe…with your help.” Jihoon looks expectantly at Junhui then, and he can tell that the feelings of uncertainty are slowly getting chipped away with Junhui’s encouragements.

Junhui grins. “Is that a yes?”

“Probably as close as you’ll ever get to me saying…”

“I think you’ll do great, Hoonie,” Junhui tells him honestly. “I can set you up to meet with my old neighbor! He’s a music producer and he helped me record the song.”

“I thought you said no one heard it!”

“He barely counts…though he did say he would love to meet the composer or something.”

“Oh my god.”

“Junhui is fine.”

“That’s—that’s not even—”

“Shut up!”

And then they’re kissing again. Junhui could spend the rest of his life kissing Jihoon, feeling the softness of his lips, loving the feeling of Jihoon’s hair running through his fingers when he tugs his boyfriend closer, love bubbling up in his chest and spreading to every part of his body so that it makes him feel all light and floaty. A year and kissing Jihoon still makes him like this. A big part of him hopes that Jihoon will always make him feel like this. A bigger part of him knows that he always will.

“I love you, Hoonie.”

“I love you too, Junnie.”

**Author's Note:**

> Chan totally knew what was up the entire time between both groups, he just didn't want to get blamed for the fighting and had quite a bit of money invested in the whole thing. 
> 
> Also, thanks for reading! Who else NEEDS to see the performance for 'Light a Flame'???


End file.
